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How Stupor Tuesday turned Twitter into the Trump Olympics

A look into HuffPost Comedy's weekly, hashtag-fueled game.

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Dahlia Dandashi

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Posted on Nov 8, 2016   Updated on May 25, 2021, 3:25 pm CDT

In the haze and craze of an election, social media becomes a hotbed for debate and ridicule. Nowhere is the chaos more creative than Twitter. 

Among our favorite outlets for hashtag-inspired timeline mischief: Huffpost Comedy, which contrived an original hashtag game, Stupor Tuesday, that’s been skewering the process all year.

The goal of the game is to create political dialogue by poking fun at the world of politics with the push of a new hashtag. Executive Special Projects Editor Lance Gould and Comedy Editor Andy McDonald wanted to launch tags that were “explicitly political” and seized the news cycle. 

“#ElectionPlotTwist,” “#MyCampaignSloganWouldBe,” and “#RNCRockAnthems” have been recent standouts. According to stats provided by the Huffpost Comedy team, they estimate about 1 billion users have seen these jokes, which have landed in over 3.5 billion Twitter timelines.

But Gould assures that nothing comes close to beating tags related to the one and only Donald Trump. “One of our hashtags, #TrumpOlympics—first week of August—rose to the No. 1 trending topic worldwide,” the duo told the Daily Dot via email. Other tags like “#TrumpAHorrorMovie,” “#TrumpUniversityMascot,” and “#EvangelicalTrump” dominated the Twitter timeline—and provided McDonald with one of his recent favorite zingers: “For #EvangelicalTrump: ‘We’re gonna build the ark, and the animals are going to pay for it!’” 

This game spotlights witty, audacious Twitter users, inspiring peak levels of savagery, sarcasm, insensibility, and punniness. 

“Every week, we discover a new all-star who gets the spirit of what we’re trying to do and takes it to a place we didn’t even know it could go,” said Gould. 

What do standout, armchair jokesters get for providing content? A coveted retweet from the Huffpost Comedy handle is thanks enough.

Stupor Tuesday’s creators also say they’re sticking around after today’s results; a new version of the game will focus on a broad range of political topics. Gould maintains there will always be political news to poke fun at, providing readers with the opportunity to both jokingly take part in the madness and empower themselves as part of the fundamental democratic process. 

“The division in the country is real, but laughing at it offers a chance to make smart, incisive commentary while also de-escalating the tension. Everyone needs to chill a bit more,” Gould said.

Last week marked Stupor Tuesday’s 31st round of games. The possibilities for an indelible election-centric hashtag are endless. Below, we bring to light some of the latest Stupor Tuesday entries that earn honorable mentions:

https://twitter.com/saladinahmed/status/788458553036120065

https://twitter.com/daviddesola/status/793524599858294784

https://twitter.com/jasonlefthand/status/788444617335156740

Let’s hope users have enough comic juice in the tank to get through Election Day.

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*First Published: Nov 8, 2016, 1:17 pm CST

Dahlia Dandashi

Dahlia Dandashi is a multimedia content producer. Her work has been published at the Austin American-Statesman and Viceland. An Arab-American raised in Dubai, she is based in Austin, Texas.

Dahlia Dandashi